A group of MPs have called for an investigation into a far-right website described as a training manual for anti-Muslim paramilitaries, amid fears that an upcoming exhibition of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in London is designed to incite Islamist violence.
The Gates of Vienna website has been heavily promoting the exhibition, which is understood to feature the same drawings shown in Texas in May when two gunmen attempted to storm the event and were killed by police.
It has been organised by the former Ukip parliamentary candidate Anne-Marie Waters and is set to take place at a location in central London on 18 September with tickets priced at £35. Organisers say among those attending will be Geert Wilders, the Dutch rightwing politician who has espoused controversial views on Islam.
In a report on the so-called British counter-jihadist movement, published on Monday, the anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate called for the exhibition to be banned.
Nick Lowles, Hope Not Hate’s chief executive, said: “Our concern is that the event is intended to provoke a reaction from British Muslims. It is not about freedom of speech, it is about incitement. The authorities cannot allow this event to go ahead. Communities shouldn’t rise to their bait, we must stand together as a show of strength.”
Lowles also said he had serious concerns about material published on the Gates of Vienna website. The site – the name of which refers to a 1683 battle between European forces and the Ottoman empire – contains detailed descriptions of how anti-Muslim paramilitary groups could operate during a conflict with European Muslims.
One entry is a fictionalised account of a predicted race war, described as “a hard look at the near future in Britain”, with a section entitled “A guide to amateur bomb-making”. Waters is a contributor to the site and has written a lengthy post about the London exhibition.
Lowles said he believed the site was hosted on British servers. “If a Muslim had a similar website, which includes bomb manuals and details about assassinations and establishing paramilitary groups, then you can be sure action would be taken,” he added.
The Labour MPs Ian Austin, Ruth Smeeth, Imran Hussain, Paula Sherriff, Wes Streeting and John Cryer have written to the director of public prosecutions, Alison Saunders, asking her to consider if the site’s owners are breaching the law.
The letter reads: “It is clear that these are the ideas that inspired Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik and as such it is deeply troubling that they are available to inspire others. We would urge you to investigate the Gates of Vienna website and take appropriate action if anyone involved is deemed to be promoting terrorism and civil disorder.”
Austin told the Guardian he would also be raising the issue with Theresa May. “I am shocked that the Gates of Vienna website can publish articles promoting a strategy for civil war,” he said. “At a time when we should all be concerned about terrorism it is imperative that the police investigate this website and those behind the calls for civil war and I’ll be raising this with the home secretary.”
He added that the exhibition of Muhammad cartoons was “clearly [intended] to provoke a reaction from British Muslims and we must all ensure this does not happen”.
Wilders was also present at the exhibition of the cartoons in Texas, which was run by the anti-Islam American Freedom Defense Initiative and hosted by the group’s co-founder, Pamela Geller, a US blogger and speaker who is banned from entering the UK over her anti-Muslim views.
Vive Charlie, an online magazine set up after the attacks by Islamist extremists on the offices of the satirical publication Charlie Hebdo in Paris, is co-hosting the exhibition along with Waters’ website Sharia Watch and the fringe far-right party Liberty GB. The magazine, which has no connection to the French title, is calling for artwork submissions.
Waters said in a statement on Sharia Watch: “It is vital, in this era of censorship and fear, that we stand together in defiance and demand our right to free expression … We will not, and cannot, succumb to violent threats. The outlook for our democracy depends on the actions we take today.”
A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said an appropriate policing plan would be put in place for the event but would not comment further.